“Marxist ideology is wrong. But in my life I have known many Marxists who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”
— Pope Francis, in an interview with La Stampa, responding to conservatives who say he’s a Marxist.
GOP Firebrands Tone Down Their Message
The New York Times reports at least nine Tea Party Republicans, “a mix of former incumbents and previous challengers” are running for Congress again — “but with a difference.”
“This time they have shelved their incendiary remarks about President Obama and the national debt in favor of a narrower focus on the Affordable Care Act, which they hope will attract moderate voters from both parties, even in heavily Democratic districts, who are disenchanted with its rollout. The campaigns, if successful, could be an indication of change in some corners of the Republican Party as many former firebrands mellow their messages [and] try to capitalize on the center. At the very least, their campaigns show that some people who ran vociferously against Washington appear eager to get back there.”
Gingrich Says Budget Deal is Good Politics
Newt Gingrich told ABC News that the bipartisan budget agreement is “brilliant politics” that will allow Republicans to keep the heat on Obamacare and avoid the terrible optics of more government shutdowns.
Said Gingrich: “I think this is mediocre policy and brilliant politics. It doesn’t get them what they want on policy terms, but it strips away the danger that people will notice anything but Obamacare. And the longer the country watches Obamacare, the more likely the Democrats are to lose the Senate.”
GOP Leans on Big Donors to Beat Back Tea Party
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “recently delivered a direct pitch to one of America’s top defense contractors: Get off the sidelines and start backing Republicans who will protect military spending,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
McConnell’s message “was that if Republican lawmakers lose primary elections from challengers further to their right who have few qualms about trimming military budgets, the defense industry could expect dwindling support in Washington.”
“The effort to beat back challenges from the right goes beyond the defense industry. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have been stepping in to help business-friendly Republicans aligned with the GOP leadership, a reaction to the government shutdown in October, which the business groups opposed, and a sign of worries that tea party-aligned candidates might try to eliminate tax breaks and spending favored by businesses.”
GOP Votes Needed to Pass Budget in Senate
Senate Republicans, “who spent most of the last week bemoaning a recent rules change that makes it easier for Democrats to confirm Obama administration appointees, will have to turn their attention this week to the two-year budget deal crafted by the heads of the House and Senate Budget Committees, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA),” CBS News reports.
“But in a deviation from the usual patterns in Washington, the bipartisan agreement may have a harder path in the Senate, where lawmakers are typically less averse to compromise than their House counterparts.”
However, The Hill reports that
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), the second-ranking Senate Democratic leader, said that “Republicans jockeying for the White House in 2016 and Tea Party challengers in 2014 have imperiled the budget deal.”
“Durbin estimated that Democrats will lose three members of their caucus on the vote, which means they’ll need at least eight Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with them.”
First Read: “While there might be a Democratic defection or two, 60 votes appears to
be much more obtainable today than it was late last week. There won’t be
much drama.”:
Ryan Signals Another Debt Ceiling Fight
Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that Republicans “would not raise the debt ceiling next year without some sort of concessions from Democrats, saying lawmakers were still crafting their strategy,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Ryan: “We, as a caucus, along with our Senate counterparts, are going to meet and discuss what it is we want to get out of the debt limit. We don’t want ‘nothing’ out of the debt limit. We’re going to decide what it is we can accomplish out of this debt limit fight.”
“The White House has said it will no longer negotiate with Republicans on conditions for raising the debt limit, but many Republicans have said they will only vote to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for budget changes like spending cuts.”
Machiavelli With Malaprops
Jon Ralston has a must-read profile of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), calling him the “most unconventional of politicians, one who cares little about public perception and delights in infuriating the opposition.”
“The former boxer’s ability to absorb blows and, even more importantly, to counterpunch, perhaps with an occasional hit below the belt, are the secrets of his longevity–and no doubt he will deploy them once again as the Senate fights this week over the budget deal. Unlike most of the preening Club of 100, Reid expends little effort tending to his public image. Driving home messages (the Tea Party is destructive) and advancing legislation (the nuclear option) are what energize this tireless son of Searchlight, Nev., a speck of a town outside Las Vegas where Reid’s hardscrabble childhood helped produce a man impervious to most political considerations and virtually immune to criticism.”
“The majority leader is a mélange of contradictions–a Machiavelli with malaprops (otherwise known as Reidisms)–but you can’t understand them just from the vantage point of the theater up on Capitol Hill.”
Cornyn Way Ahead of Stockman
A new Wilson Perkins Allen poll in Texas finds Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) crushing GOP primary challenger Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), 50% to 6%.
A Year of Doing Very Little
According to data analyzed by the New York Times, the House of Representatives, “which ended its business for the year last week, left town with the distinction of having been at work for the fewest hours in a nonelection year since 2005, when detailed information about legislative activity became available.”
“Not counting brief, pro forma sessions, the House was in session for 942 hours, an average of about 21 hours each week it conducted business in Washington. That is far lower than the nearly 1,700 hours it was in session in 2007, the 1,350 hours in 2005 or even the 1,200 in 2011.”
“By a similar measure, the Senate was near its recorded lows for days on the floor. Senators have spent 99 days casting votes this year, close to the recent low point for a nonelection year in 1991, when there were 95 voting days.”
Americans Fear Obamacare Erodes Their Health Coverage
A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds “a striking level of unease” about the health care law “among people who have health insurance and aren’t looking for any more government help.”
“In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77%) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law’s passage. Sixty-nine percent say their premiums will be going up, while 59 percent say annual deductibles or copayments are increasing.”
A New Bush Embraces the Tea Party
George P. Bush, “the 37-year-old grandson of one former president and nephew of another, is launching his political career by running for Texas’ little-known but powerful land commissioner post,” the AP reports.
“But rather than campaigning on the mainstream Republicanism embodied by the family name, Bush says he’s ‘a movement conservative’ more in line with the tea party.”
“As if to underscore the point, he says he draws the most inspiration not from the administrations of his grandfather, George H. W. Bush, or his uncle, George W. Bush, but from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of that chamber.”
SNL on Obama’s Visit to South Africa
In a Saturday Night Live skit, President Obama addresses the controversies he encountered at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
Obama Loses Millennials
A new USA Today/Pew Research survey finds 45% of 18- to 29-year-old Americans say they approve of the way President Obama is handling his job while 46% disapprove of his job performance.
“The president’s approval rating with young Americans — which stood at 67% just ahead of his second inauguration less than a year ago — now mirrors the general population.”
The Ted Cruz Coloring Book
Just in time for Christmas: Ted Cruz to the Future: Coloring Activity Book.
Quote of the Day
“It’s the priests versus the mathematicians.”
— GOP consultant Mike Murphy, quoted by the New York Daily News, describing the GOP battle between ideological, conservative insurgents and the more pragmatic types who want to expand the party base.
Bloomberg Seeks to Reshape Other Cities
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “determined to parlay his government experience and vast fortune into a kind of global mayoralty, is creating a high-powered consulting group to help him reshape cities around the world long after he leaves office,” the New York Times reports.
“To build the new organization, paid for out of his own pocket, the billionaire mayor is taking much of his City Hall team with him: He has already hired many of his best-known and longest-serving deputies, promising them a chance to export the policies they developed in New York to far-flung places like Louisville, Ky., and Mexico City.”
Ryan, Clinton Most Favored in Iowa
A new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll finds Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) “is wildly popular here with a 73% favorability rating, a surprise finding that reveals he’s at the forefront of potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates in the nation’s kickoff voting state.”
“Two former winners of the Republican caucuses have the second and third highest favorability ratings among voting-age GOP’ers — 66% for Mike Huckabee, 58% for Rick Santorum — among 10 buzzed-about Republicans tested in this poll.”
“But their popularity isn’t as striking as the overwhelming affinity Iowa Democrats have for Hillary Clinton, with 89% saying they have a positive opinion of her. Just 7% of voting-age Democrats have a negative impression the former U.S. secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York.”
White House Delayed Rules Before Election
“The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election,” the Washington Post reports.
“Some agency officials were instructed to hold off submitting proposals to the White House for up to a year to ensure that they would not be issued before voters went to the polls… The delays meant that rules were postponed or never issued.”
“The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any delays until after the election were coincidental and that such decisions were made without regard to politics. But seven current and former administration officials told The Washington Post that the motives behind many of the delays were clearly political, as Obama’s top aides focused on avoiding controversy before his reelection.”
